Sketch in colour: A virtual art challenge - Saturday 25 April 2020

You are invited to Sketch in colour: a virtual art challenge on Saturday 25 April 2020, from 11am to 1pm.

We would like to preserve as much as possible the idea of a sketching event taking place at a particular time.  Of course, if this date and time is not practical for you, feel free to do the challenge on another occasion.

This replaces the joint meet-up planned for Urban Sketchers London and Urban Sketchers Cambridge.  Posting on social media, use the hashtags #uskathome #sketchincolour #usklondon #uskcambridge

Summary: The theme of this challenge is colour.  We hope you will experiment and move beyond your comfort zone.  For this challenge, it is suggested you find yourself a subject which you can sketch from observation on the day.  On the day, you will do a preliminary sketch (maybe in pencil), then three quick colour versions of this subject - each will show a different use of colour.  Read through the description below, as before the challenge starts, you will need to prepare three different coloured backgrounds on which to draw or paint.

Materials: You can use any coloured materials for this: paint, coloured inks, coloured pencils, crayons, coloured pens, oil pastels, chalk pastels, collage.

Advance preparation: A few days before the date of the challenge, prepare three different coloured surfaces on which you will paint and draw.  These could be:

·         Paper coloured by washes of watercolour or diluted acrylic ink, or something similar

·         Coloured paper (manufactured): do experiment a bit rather than choose beige, grey and buff

·         Collaged surfaces suitable for your painting/drawing materials

As you will be working quickly to produce three small studies, I suggest these prepared sheets should not be too big.

The aim is to move away from the natural colours of the scene, and experiment.  I suggest you choose colours for your backgrounds as follows:

·         A colour which you find uplifting, which makes you happy

·         A colour which to you is calming

·         A colour which you find warm and energising

These examples are done in gouache on backgrounds of diluted acrylic ink.  Your approach could be quite different, with more emphasis on line drawing with coloured pens, for example.

Choosing a subject to sketch: choose any scene it is practical for you to sketch from observation on the day, inside or outside, a view from a window, a balcony or garden.  Don’t make your subject too extensive or complex – the aim is small colour studies.

What to do on the day:

11-11.10: Make sure your art kit and prepared sheets of paper are ready (10 minutes) 

11.10-11.30: Start with a warm-up sketch, in a sketchbook, perhaps simply in pencil, to clarify your subject and composition in your mind (20 minutes)

11.30-11.40: using your three different coloured sheets, choose a different selection of colours to sketch on each.

Then, do three colour studies/sketches of the same subject from observation (20 minutes each)

11.40-12 noon: Colour study 1

12 noon-12.20: Break (optional!)

12.20-12.40: Colour study 2

12..40-1pm Colour study 3

1pm: Finish.  Congratulations!  Please photograph or scan and post your sketches and enjoy the sketches of others too.

Posting on social media, use the hashtags #uskathome #sketchincolour #usklondon #uskcambridge

Follow-up: Having done the three colour studies, you could choose one of the colour ranges and make a more developed sketch/drawing/painting.

  

Sketch in colour: A virtual art challenge - Saturday 25 April 2020

2020 sketchcrawl programme suspended

(Jo Dungey writes) Given the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and the predictions of public health experts about its possible spread, Lis Watkins, Isabel Carmona and I (the group’s named administrators) have decided:

• The proposed sketchcrawl for Saturday 25 April 2020 is CANCELLED.
• In place of this, we will have a virtual art challenge timed for that date, and will publish more details about the proposed activity nearer the time.  This will be something to be carried out at a safe location of your choice.  As our April meet-up was to have been a joint event for Urban Sketchers London and Urban Sketchers Cambridge, Cambridge sketchers are particularly encouraged to take part. 
• The remaining sketchcrawl programme: Let’s draw London in 2020, is SUSPENDED.  We cannot at this point predict when it may be safe to resume these activities.

We are very sorry to have to do this; we would much rather be meeting with fellow sketchers.  We hope to continue with suggesting sketching activities and challenges.  However, this is a group run by a small number of volunteers who share everyone else’s stresses and problems at this difficult time, and I think we need to be cautious about the capacity of the group.

The advantage of having an active interest in art at this time is that there are also many other resources of interest available online: art ideas, virtual tours of galleries and museums, forums for different types of art and crafts.  For example, as the major public art galleries and museums in London are closed to the public, their staff will be developing an extended range of online material. 

So, continue to enjoy your sketching.

2020 sketchcrawl programme suspended

The Thirty Day Indoor Sketching Challenge

The Thirty Day Indoor Sketching Challenge
Urban Sketchers London
#uskathome

Start date: Thu 19 March 2020

In view that we are going to be staying at home for a while and trying to keep sane through sketching we propose an #uskathome challenge for those of you who want to take it up. Let’s see it as an opportunity to get to know each other better through urban sketching from home.

It would be good to follow the list and do one topic a day but it is fine to do them at your own time and we look forward to seeing the shared sketches. Each topic may suggest more than one interpretation or need more than one drawing. It is important than the drawings are done from life as observed in your environment but experiment with media, ways of drawing, using colour, shading, backgrounds and surfaces and so on..

While sketching think about telling us a story of what the situation is like, not just focusing on the object(s) you are drawing - as urban sketchers we show the world around us one drawing at a time - this cartoon from USK HK tells you to focus on the context as well as the object to enrich your story.

Also we would love to see the sketchbook(s) live next time we meet in person so please bring them along when we are able to meet again - we hope very soon.

Here is the proposed list of 30 topics (take them one a day or every two days and share with the urban sketching community for encouragement and to keep in touch).

Use the hashtags: #uskathome #usklondon #30daysuskinside #urbansketchers

Share in Facebook, Flickr or Twitter [tag @UrbSketchLondon]

30 Day Urban Sketching Challenge

1. Hello I am . . . . . . (selfie) - introduce yourself
2. Working (from home)
3. Doing daily chores
4. What are you reading?
5. Keeping entertained
6. Do It Yourself
7. Cooking
8. Collecting
9. Gardening (or balcony gardens or pot plants)
10. Keeping Healthy - exercise

11. Hobbies (other than sketching)
12. Favourite film watching
13. Music listening
14. Looking at the sky
15. Taking stock (objects in the cupboard or assessing our lives)
16. Bird watching
17. Giving or receiving presents
18. Hanging on the wall
19. Spring is in the air
20. How are you feeling? (selfie)

21. Choosing clothes from your wardrobe
22. Watching TV
23. Telling the time
24. Playing games
25. Bug watching
26. Looking out of the window
27. Eating fruit
28. New and old in your life
29. Adding flavour
30. “A day in the life of . . .” storyboard (A three minute sketch every hour composed into a story of your day)

Let’s keep urban sketching from home!

The Thirty Day Indoor Sketching Challenge

Prudent, Wise and Correct......

(John Webb writes)  The decision to cancel yesterday. Sadly I couldn't sketch at home on the 14th but did the day before at Brentford Community Stadium which is nearly finished - but who knows when we'll be able to use it.  There were to be two 'test events' with reduced capacity in April/May which I would have used for some rapid sketching to conclude the project...will do in due course.  Its been over two years - lots of sketches and a great discipline to keep regularly drawing.

Prudent, Wise and Correct......

CANCELLED - NO SKETCHCRAWL ON SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2020

About the coronavirus outbreak – update


(Jo Dungey writes) Lis Watkins, Isobel Carmona and I have discussed the situation, and we have decided to CANCEL the  Urban Sketchers London sketchcrawl on Saturday 14 March to Elephant and Castle. 


This is in the light of the government emergency COBRA meeting on the Coronavirus which has changed the official policy from ‘Containment’ to ‘Delay’. We have decided to be very cautious, as public health advice seems to be moving towards cancellation of unnecessary gatherings.


We apologise to those who are disappointed and for the late change to what we had said about this event.


We will decide on future events one month at a time: so check here and our Facebook page for updates.  Please stay safe, and post your sketches on our Facebook and Flikr pages.  Remember the draw 100 people challenge, wherever you live.  Do use our Facebook page to suggest small informal meet-ups and challenges.  Keep sketching.

Again, we are very sorry to do this - it was not an easy decision.

CANCELLED - NO SKETCHCRAWL ON SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2020

CANCELLED: Let's draw Granary Square - Saturday 25 April 2020

UPDATE: because of the coronavirus outbreak, this sketchcrawl is CANCELLED and our 2020 sketchcrawl programme is SUSPENDED.  

Options for drawing:

The area has interesting contrasts between the Victorian industrial architecture and the very new developments.

Regent’s Canal runs through the King's Cross area and is lined with boats and old buildings.

Coal Drops Yard is a new shopping centre designed by Thomas Heatherwick, which uses buildings originally built to store coal for the gas works; the original gasometers can still be seen.

The House of Illustration (admission charge for exhibitions) is to the east of the Central St Martins building, next to Waitrose, which is also housed in old industrial buildings. 

The Canopy Market is next to Waitrose.

New developments are still in progress.

If the weather is wet, there is cover inside Coal Drops Yard, at the Canopy Market, and under the canal bridges.

Practical information: 

The nearest underground/national rail station is King's Cross.  There are various cafes, restaurants and market stalls.  There are toilets in Coal Drops Yard and at the back of the Canopy Market.

This day is organised jointly with Urban Sketchers Cambridge, and run by Jo Dungey (Urban Sketchers London) and Yasemin Gyford of Urban Sketchers Cambridge.

The photographs and the sketch of Coal Drops Yard are by Jo Dungey.

CANCELLED: Let's draw Granary Square - Saturday 25 April 2020

We drew at the Wallace Collection and St James Church - February 2020

(Nicky Browne writes) On Saturday 15 February 2020, a large number of London Urban Sketchers descended on the Wallace Collection in Central London.  There were at least a dozen new faces joining us who included a visiting Australian Urban Sketcher.

The museum has a significant art collection with many well-known pieces, such as Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier and Fragonard's Girl on a Swing. Artefacts, armour, furniture and opulent curtains with huge tassels fill this exotic and unusual museum. "Gosh" a visitor said to me, "everyone is really concentrating hard!"

The high winds of Storm Denis limited the number of hardy outdoor toilers. However, there was just sufficient time before the rain for some splendid renderings of the architecturally significant Victorian fire station, now the Chiltern Firehouse Hotel, and of St James Church in Spanish Place. The church also welcomed us to draw inside and quite a number of sketchers challenged themselves with the complex Victorian Gothic interior.

The day was run by Nicky Browne and Sasala Wickramasinghe. Photographs are by Sasala Wickramasinghe and Jo Dungey, and the sketch inside St James Church is by Sasala Wickramasinghe.

We drew at the Wallace Collection and St James Church - February 2020